Our house dates from 1949, as did the septic tank, a galvanized tin container about 6' in diameter,…read moreno leach field. As the tank had caved in recently, we no longer had a functioning system (which indeed backed into the house at Christmas time.)
After we trenched out the old system and at least got liquids flowing, we sought out bids to replace. Not only did the whole system have to get rebuilt to code, but we also had to deal with shale rock inches below the lawn and a wooded area leading down the hillside for the site of the leach field.
Given the scope of the project, the first contractor we spoke to was never heard from again.
J&R Contracting, headed up the the father and son team of Rick and Rick, arrived 2 days after we called, sized up the project, gave us a realistic estimate given the challenges of the site (e.g. assume an extra day to jack hammer through the shale to create a pit.) We said, "Sure!" Rick took a deposit to pay for the construction of a low profile holding tank, said they'd be back to do the job when the tank was ready.
Sure enough, 3 weeks later, the team showed up with two backhoes, a dozer, trucks to transport in sand and topsoil, and chainsaws. We mapped out an area for the tank and leach field, and then they got to work. Over three days a level area was created for the leach field after removing some scrub trees. Specimen trees were tagged and left alone.
The big project was jack hammering out the pit, as deep as I am tall. The tank was lowered in, piping connected and soil smoothed over. As J&R already had all the equipment on site, we asked for two days of extra work to bring in ten loads of sand and topsoil to regrade the lawn, reshaping to direct rainfall and winter melt away from the house foundations.
The final step in late April will be to distribute shade tolerant grass seed across the new lawn.
The final bill matched the original estimate. The added time and materials for sculpting the lawn was, of course, extra. The results far exceeded our expectations.